Posts Tagged ‘meditation’

This week, two items on the Internet were brought to our attention, both of which may seem to be unrelated to each other but in actuality have a connection that we find to be an eerie reminder of the days in which we live.

The first item is a Tweet written earlier this week by Lynne Hybels (wife of the mega church founder of Willow Creek, Bill Hybels). The Tweet stated:

Lynne Hybels (photo taken from http://www.evangelicalsforsocialaction.org/reconciliation-and-dialogue/beyond-balance-taking-sides-with-palestinian-and-israeli-peacemakers/)

As many of you may know, Lynne Hybels is part of the emergent church and someone who has proven herself to be against the nation of Israel. If someone were to ask us what are two of the main characteristics of the emerging church, we would say mysticism and an anti-Israel sentiment. It is interesting to note that Hybels says she lost the Christianity of her youth 25 years ago – that would mean she left her old Christianity around 1991, about 16 years after her husband started Willow Creek Church. What did she exchange Christianity for?—Contemplative mysticism, a spirituality that has its roots in panentheism and interspirituality. While Lynne Hybels speaks of being affected by the brokenness of the world, she doesn’t understand that the very spirituality she has embraced is actually a New Age spirituality that rejects Christ as Savior and whose “God” is not a compassionate god that cares for “the brokenness of the world.” This New Age god believes that Hitler did the Jews a favor by killing them as you can see in the quotes below taken from Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God:

The real issue is whether Hitler’s actions were “wrong.” Yet I have said over and over again that there is no “right” or “wrong” in the universe. A thing is not intrinsically right or wrong. A thing simply is.

Now your thought that Hitler was a monster is based on the fact that he ordered the killing of millions of people, correct? . . . Yet what if I told you that what you call “death” is the greatest thing that could happen to anyone—what then?

So the first thing you have to understand—as I’ve already explained to you—is that Hitler didn’t hurt anyone. In a sense, he didn’t inflict suffering, he ended it.

The mistakes Hitler made did no harm or damage to those whose deaths he caused. Those souls were released from their earthly bondage, like butterflies emerging from a cocoon. (These quotes are extracted from one of Warren B. Smith’s booklets where you can get the original sources.)

The New Age god also says that those who oppose this interspiritual New Age, mystical belief system are like a cancer that needs to be excised out of the Earth. The following excerpt from an article one of our editors wrote in 2015 explains:

[A] chapter in Revelation . . . says, “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Revelation 18:24). May I point out once again that mysticism (or occultism) connects one with a spirit world inhabited by demons posing to be angels of light. The occultist Alice Bailey, under the influence of her spirit guides, predicted that while New Age style meditation will be promoted and propelled by the apostate Christian church, Christians who will not forsake the fundamentals of the faith will be seen as being in the way of bringing in this Age of enlightenment–an age of peace where everyone sees his or her own divinity and oneness with all things. New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard suggests that these resisters of the new world/new reformation will be like a cancer that needs to be excised out of the earth. She calls this elimination the “Selection Process.”1 Now I ask, what can be more hypocritical and diabolical than to think that the annihilation of godly people will bring about peace?

This brings us to the second item that was brought to our attention this week—a review written on the Lighthouse Trails Facebook page. The review was written a couple months ago, but we did not see it until this week. The review states:

From what I’ve read you [Lighthouse Trails] twist what people of faith say and believe! You also do what many others do and that is take the scriptures and make them say what you believe or want them to say to back up your presuppositions! I believe you are dangerous to the gospel and will severely weaken anyone who listens to you! When I think of you I think that freedom of speech for you and yours should be revoked for the safety of the people! I cannot bid you farewell because I believe with everything in me that you are a new disease that needs to be wiped out! Thank God you’re in America the land of the free! (Michael)

We find the connection in these two different posts (Hybels and Michael) lies in the hostility toward Christians that is represented in both. In Hybel’s Twitter post, she is trying to show a distinction between traditional Christianity (what she grew up with) and what she considers a better more advanced and compassionate belief system that she now embraces. In other words, the old Christianity had nothing to offer her and in fact, had no compassion. Our reviewer, Michael, has taken his anger toward Lighthouse Trails (representing traditional, biblical Christianity) to the point of saying we are a disease (cancer?) that should be wiped out.

If you are a Bible-believing, born again Christian, then you will understand that there has been hostility toward believers since the inception of the church. All but one of the disciples were murdered for their faith as have been countless other believers over the last two thousand years. What is it that the world hates about true Christians? What is our crime against humanity? We love the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe He died for the sins of mankind and offers salvation for those who put their trust in Him, we believe He gave us the Bible as His Word to us, and we truly care about the souls of men and where they will spend eternity. And yet, the world rejects us, and the hostility toward us will only increase. And the fast-growing use of mystical practices will expedite those hostilities because the source of those practices is against Christ and His people.

Today we received a call from a concerned woman who found out that a local public school was about to introduce mindfulness meditation to children at the school. She called the school and has been granted a 5-minute time slot at an upcoming school meeting to explain why the school should not teach mindfulness meditation to children. During our phone conversation with the concerned woman, we developed a short outline of how to address this issue with school officials. Meditation (and Yoga) will soon be practiced in most public schools in America. Whether you have children at a public school or not, do what you can to help prevent your own local public school from incorporating meditation into the lives of the children. And keep in mind, it’s just a matter of time before Christian schools will be introducing mindfulness meditation and Yoga as well. We know this because the condition of today’s North American Christianity is of such a nature that Christians are being persuaded to go along with the culture; and, of course, with contemplative meditation so prevalent in the church, Christians are being conditioned to accept all forms of New Age meditation.

a. According to several professional sources, mindfulness exercises are considered a therapeutic practice. For example, the Journal of Psychosomatic Research and the Clinical Psychology Review associate mindfulness with Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (https://www.psychologytoday.com/therapy-types/mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy).

III. Mindfulness is a religious practice.

a. Webster defines the word religion as “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.”

b. The premise behind mindfulness is that divinity dwells in every human being, and therefore this meditative state that alters one’s mind can be reached by anyone because the divinity within allows for this connection. This belief that everyone has divinity within is a religion within itself but is also the premise of Buddhism and Hinduism (and the New Age).

c. Since public schools in America have made the decision that religion cannot be taught in the public schools, Yoga and meditation have no business being taught in the public schools. This is discriminatory against Christian influence in the schools, which has been banned from American public schools.

IV. Meditation is dangerous, and the schools should not be experimenting on vulnerable children.

a. There are numerous documented reports that meditation can be dangerous, especially for the vulnerable and weak (a category in which children fit). Here are a few articles that discuss this:

We recommend printing this outline and also the articles that it links to and giving this to your local public school district officials. And Lighthouse Trails is willing to send a free copy of one of our booklets on meditation to any school district official who would like to read it. Just e-mail us at editors@lighthousetrails.com the name and mailing address of any school official who agrees to receive the booklet.

Some of the dangers and effects of meditation according to the sources listed above:

a. insomnia

b. fear

c. hypersensitivity to light and sound

d. anxiety

e. difficulty eating

f. panic and paranoia

g. psychosis

h. seizures

i. mania

j. visual hallucinations

k. unable to function or work

l. a loss of sense of identity

m. psychotic depression

n. elevated mood and grandiose delusions

o. unrestrained behaviors (sexual and violence)

p. pain

q. confusion and disorientation

r. feelings of emptiness and ennui (listlessness, dissatisfaction)

s. depersonalization

t. impairment of social relationships

u. cognitive, perceptual and sensory aberrations

v. disempowering

w. causes passiveness and compliance (even when those are negative responses to certain situations)

*It is interesting to note that most of these symptoms are similar to symptoms that occur with the use of hallucinogenic drugs. Is this really what children in the public schools should be put at risk of enduring? There is no way for a teacher to know which children will respond negatively to meditation. Also worth noting in reference to mass shootings, some of these men had a history of long-term meditation habits. This is even mentioned in one of the articles above. When you read some of these symptoms – depersonalization, unrestrained behaviors, psychotic depression, a loss of sense of identity – we must ask the question, will this huge thrust by American public schools to have all school children meditating end up producing violence and psychotic behavior in our society rather than peace?

LTRP Note: Teaching children to meditate is teaching them to connect with demonic realms. And according to the Bible, while demons come deceivingly as “ministers of righteousness,” their “father” is the father of lies, destruction, and death. What’s more, contemplative prayer (that is becoming widespread throughout evangelical Christianity) is from the same source as mindful meditation, but Christian leaders are giving it a pass. They will be held accountable by God for allowing this to happen to the church’s children just as the public school leaders will be held accountable for what they are doing to millions of children.

Dear Lighthouse Trails:

I am extremely concerned about the future of America and the Church. Your publication helped me spot a problem in my own backyard. I work for________ County Public Schools in _______. I am a part-time employee and specifically work in the library and help with lunch and recess duty. Our school is part of ________ County’s “healthy schools” program. There is an emphasis on eating and living a healthy life. Part of this living a healthy life they emphasize is mindfulness. It is in full swing in the classrooms [Healthy Schools Program is in more than 31,000 schools in the US]. I have not been asked to participate in mindfulness nor have they asked me to be part of any training; probably because of my part-time status. However, I am deeply disturbed that it is present in the school, and I have not heard one person criticize it. Every person that says anything about it praises it. Sometimes I think I am the only Christian there. I have decided that if they want me to take the training or participate, I will decline. If I lose my job because of it, I trust God to help me find another job as this will put a financial burden on my family. However, I have to put God first.

Thank you for helping me to discern that mindfulness is Satanic and something I should not participate in. I am not sure I would have understood the implications of mindfulness had I not been reading your publication.

We received the top two photos this week from a reader. Below that are photos of various labyrinths in churches across North America. We have posted these, not to single out these particular churches, but rather to show examples of how many denominations have now incorporated the contemplative mystical practice of walking the labyrinth. And this is only showing some of the churches that have labyrinths on site. There are countless churches, ministries, and denominations that may not necessarily have labyrinths on site, but pastors and leaders encourage their congregations or followers to use them (e.g., the Reformed Church of America), or they encourage their congregations to visit retreat centers that have them. Carl Teichrib has written an excellent article/booklet on labyrinths that is worth the read.

(The photos used below are low resolution photos used in accordance with the U.S. Fair Use Act for the critique, review, and dissemination of information.)

A Lighthouse Trails reader sent us an article this week from a Pacific Northwest newspaper* describing how members of a local church are changing the way they practice church and view Christianity, doing away with their traditional church methods and embracing what they call a “contemplative approach.” The article states that they were inspired, in part, to go in this direction from reading Diana Butler Bass’ book Christianity for the Rest of Us.

It’s no wonder a church would head in the contemplative direction if congregants are turning to Butler Bass for spiritual nourishment. You may recall a Lighthouse Trails article in November of 2015 about Diana Butler Bass titled “New Spirituality Teacher Says ‘The Jig is Up’ to Those Who Believe in ‘the Blood of the Lamb.'”Bass is a contemplative proponent, and like so many of her contemplative constituents who wander into the contemplative prayer world, her views toward the Cross and the atonement have become outright hostile; and those who adhere to the “blood of the lamb” and who cling to the old rugged Cross are seen as an enemy and hindrance to world peace and “restoration.”

Christianity for the Rest of Us is filled with the ideologies of contemplatives, emergents, and socialist-like figures such as Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Eddie Gibbs, Marcus Borg, Joan Chittister, Parker Palmer, and her “friend” Brian McLaren. A prevailing theme in the book is “sitting in silence,” meditation, and contemplation. She says things like:

People need silence to find their way back to interior wisdom. They need a recovery of the contemplative arts of “thinking, meditating, ruminating.” (Kindle Locations 1789-1790).

True knowledge of the self, of love and meaning, comes only in silence. (Kindle Locations 1795-1796).

If this and other churches continue following the same path as Diana Butler Bass, they may also begin to embrace her view that “the jig is up” to those who believe in the “blood of the lamb.” Below is the article we wrote in 2015. If your church is reading books by authors such as Diana Butler Bass, please urge them to reconsider what they are doing.

New Spirituality Teacher Says “The Jig is Up” to Those Who Believe in “the Blood of the Lamb”

Every now and then something come along that presents our case in such a succinct and obvious way that we are compelled to share it with our readers with the hope it will leave no question as to how serious the present situation is with regard to Christianity in the Western world. Religious author Diana Butler Bass, who was one of the speakers at the [2015] Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City, has written a book titled Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. In it, she makes the stunning statement:

Conventional, comforting Christianity has failed. It does not work. For the churches that insist on preaching it, the jig is up. We cannot go back, and we should not want to. . . . In earlier American awakenings, preachers extolled “old-time religion” as the answer to questions about God, morality, and existence. This awakening is different . . . it is not about sawdust trails, mortification of sin [putting to death the old man], and being washed in the blood of the Lamb [the preaching of the Cross – emphasis ours]. The awakening going on around us is not an evangelical revival; it is not returning to the faith of our fathers or re-creating our grandparents church. Instead, it is a Great Returning to ancient understandings of the human quest for the divine. (pp. 36, 99).

Contrast this with 2 Corinthians 5: 18-21, which states:

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It could not be any more clear what’s at stake here. The term “the jig is up” is a slang term that has the connotation of someone being caught at doing something wrong. It has an intrinsically militant tone that is more or less saying “you’re not going to get away with this any longer.” By Butler Bass saying “the jig is up,” there is an underlying implication of a mounting consensus that backs up that statement, such as what Ray Yungen and others we know recently witnessed at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, where 14,000 people attended and where a clear animosity toward biblical Christians was prevalent.

Inside Diana Butler Bass’ book that so openly rejects the Cross and the atonement are the following glowing endorsements of people you have probably heard of:

Join her in rebuilding religion from the bottom up!—Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation and author of Falling Upward

She has a good nose to sniff out crappy religion, but she also has the eyes to see new life budding from the compost of Christendom. Shane Claiborne, mentored by Tony Campolo

Diana Butler Bass has a keen eye for what is happening in the Christian world these days— so keen, she is able to see through the bad news for the good news that is emerging. Parker Palmer

Bass as one of our foremost commentators on twenty-first century Christianity.—Marcus Borg

I expect (and hope) that this will be the must-read ‘church book’ for every Christian leader— clergy and lay— for years to come.” —Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity and Naked Spirituality

We hope our readers will pass this information onto to many they know and pray it may jolt quite a number of people out of complacency or even skepticism into the realization that what we’ve been reporting on these past nearly 14 years is actually occurring.

What Butler Bass refers to as the “ancient understandings of the human quest for the divine” is what the apostle Paul called the mystery of iniquity. This is where man is deceived by familiar spirits (demons) into believing that man is God.

And when it comes to the preaching of the Cross, Diana Butler Bass, Marcus Borg, Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr, and Shane Claiborne are wrong. On the contrary to what they believe, the preaching of the Cross DOES work. People ARE reconciled to God when they are washed in the blood of the lamb. In other words, they’re not just wrong, they are terribly tragically wrong.

And they [the saints of Jesus Christ] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Revelation 12:11)

*Note: Because our reader is hoping to reach out to this church with some information, we are not naming the church or the city.

LTRP Note: The following news story is posted for informational and research purposes and not as an endorsement of the content (but rather as a warning):

By Catherine TriompheAgence France Presse
(from the Daily Star)

NEW YORK: It is 5 p.m., otherwise known as rush hour in Manhattan. Julia Lyons, 31, finishes work and heads straight for her daily dose of peace and quiet – half an hour at meditation studio “Mndfl.” Since April 2016, when she discovered the studio, the investment bank employee has abandoned yoga and embraced meditation.

“I have been meditating pretty regularly – probably five times a week, 30-minute sessions,” says Lyons, sipping a cup of tea on the studio’s sofa.

“I just need a moment to chill out. This city – you are always running place to place and there are not a lot of quiet spaces,” she explains. “I think it’s made me a lot happier and also just helped me make better decisions, more thoughtful decisions.”

Practiced by millions around the world, meditation promotes mental well-being through concentration, breathing techniques and self-awareness. For a long time, those singing its praises were intellectuals, celebrities or people dedicated to spirituality. Click here to continue reading.

Related Information:

Mindfulness, Meditation Techniques Being Used in Public School Classrooms Across County on 750,000 Students

These revealing quotes are from well-known figures who have significantly influenced the religious landscape in today’s culture. Sadly, they have helped to mislead millions with their promotion of contemplative prayer (a mystical, panentheistic-rooted practice).

Rick Warren
“With practice, you can develop the habit of praying silent ‘breath prayers'” – Rick Warren, from his book, The Purpose Driven Life (p. 299)

“[U]se ‘breath prayers’ throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath.”—Rick Warren,Purpose Driven Life, p. 89.

Ken Blanchard
“Does Buddha have anything to offer non-Buddhists in the workplace? My answer is a wholehearted, ‘Yes.’—Ken Blanchard, co-author of the One Minute Manager, from the foreword and front cover of What Would Buddha Do in the Workplace?

Bruce Wilkinson
“We have promoted an unbiblical message that becoming born-again is the answer to everything. It’s not. It changes your eternity, but it doesn’t change your sexual behavior, for instance. The gospel does not always have the answer for modern-day dilemmas.” – JOY! magazine, the South African counterpart to Charisma, in April 2004

From Youth Specialties
“I built myself a prayer room—a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet filled with books on spiritual disciplines, contemplative prayer, and Christian mysticism. In that space I lit candles, burned incense, hung rosaries, and listened to tapes of Benedictine monks. I meditated for hours on words, images, and sounds. I reached the point of being able to achieve alpha brain patterns…”—Mike Perschon, Youth Specialties Magazine, December 2004

“Choose a sacred word or phrase. Consistently use the same word throughout the prayer. Begin silently to repeat your sacred word or phrase.” – Mark Yaconelli, Youth Specialties National Pastor’s Convention (source)

Brennan Manning
“Contemplative prayer is nothing other than coming into consciousness of what is already there.” – Brennan Manning, Signature of Jesus, p. 197

Larry Crabb
“Brennan (Manning) is my friend, walking ahead of me on the path toward home. As I watch him from behind, I am drawn to more closely follow on the path…” – Larry Crabb, endorsement of Abba’s Child (source)

Henri Nouwen
“Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.” – Sabbatical Journey (the last book Nouwen wrote), p. 51, hardcover edition

“The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart.” – Way of the Heart, p. 81.

Ruth Haley Barton
“Ask for a simple prayer to express your willingness to meet God in the silence … a simple statement …such as “Here I am.” … Help yourself return to your original intent by repeating the prayer that you have chosen.” – Discipleship Journal, Vol. 113 1999

John Michael Talbot
“I began practicing meditation, specifically breath prayer, once again. I integrated the use of Tai Chi and yoga.” – John Michael Talbot, Interview with Christianity Today 10/22/2001

Richard Foster
“[Y]ou and I may have strong opinions on double predestination, supralapsarianism, and biblical inerrancy, but these should not be considered evangelical essentials.” – Streams of Living Water, Kindle location 3914

Matthew Fox
“We need to become aware of the Cosmic Christ, which means recognizing that every being has within it the light of Christ.” – Steve Turner interviewing Matthew Fox, “Natural Mystic?” (Nine O Clock Service, March 1995)

“Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive.” (source)

Beth Moore
“[I]f we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness.” – from the Be Still DVD, an infomercial for contemplative prayer (source)

Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul
“What works for me is a combination of disciplines: I do yoga, tai chi which is a Chinese martial art and three kinds of meditation—vipasana, transcendental and mantra (sound) meditation.” – from Choosing to be Happy

Thomas Merton
“Isn’t it a pity that people are going into LSD to have spiritual experiences, when we have a tradition in the Church [contemplative prayer] which no one knows anything about?” (source)

M. Basil Pennington
“When we go to the center of our being and pass through that center into the very center of God we get in immediate touch with this divine creating energy … that the divine energy may have the freedom to forward the evolution of consciousness in us and through us, as a part of the whole, in the whole of the creation.” – An Invitation to Centering Prayer

Thomas Keating
“My acquaintance with eastern methods of meditation has convinced me that … there are ways of calming the mind in the spiritual disciplines of both the east and the west [and] many serious seekers of truth study the eastern religions.” – Open Mind, Open Heart, p. 29

Pope John Paul
“Pick out a word or two. Tell your children to sit quietly and repeat the word in their heads—not thinking about the word, just repeating it.” – Everyday Catholic newsletter, Nov. 2001

The Emerging Church
“The first time I introduced this, the kids came in, and I had a candle going and a little incense burning and some Gregorian chant music on the CD player” – Tony Jones, from interview with editor Jeff Bailey, Cutting Edge magazine, pp. 15-22.